Transformation of Genealogy as an Academic Discipline: The Case of the University of Hradec Králové

Abstract

The author shares her personal, almost a quarter of a century long, experience with genealogy and its teaching at the universities. As a student, she experienced “the standard courses” where genealogy was given only a minimal space. She encountered a very similar situation after becoming a university teacher at another university. After few years of “standard” teaching, she started to try to change the perception of genealogy as a kind of “leisure-time discipline”. And finally, during the last five years, she has begun to turn her ideals into reality in the role of a guarantor of the Bachelor’s degree study program of Historical Sciences at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Hradec Králové. She explains why – from her point of view – genealogy used to be marginalized as an academic discipline and what the consequences have been. The text is not a lament over the dismal situation, but it tries to offer new perspectives for the development of genealogy as an academic discipline and to present one of the possible approaches how to implement such a transformation, using the example of the University of Hradec Králové. She and her colleagues no longer understand genealogy as a peripheral discipline, but as one of the essential historical sciences. Students are supported in their own research, and the knowledge of genealogy use teachers in other subjects. They also see a future in the development of genetic genealogy and other interdisciplinary attitudes. The purpose of this paper is to initiate a broad discussion about the possible forms of teaching genealogy and about its benefits and pitfalls in the 21st century.